[gjp] socially responsible investing history

socially responsible investing history

Your tuition goes towards Boston College’s endowment of over $1.4 billion, but none of us know where this money is invested. Nuclear Weapons? Tobacco? Land mines? Companies supporting the genocidal government of Sudan? Who knows? The BC administration refuses to tell students and alumni where their money is invested.

Although the university’s investment policy demands its investments follow “the ethical, social, and moral principles inherent in [BC’s] traditions,” we have no idea what sort of companies and businesses our money supports. The evidence seems to show that our university’s investment policy is actually a far cry from the ethics and social responsibility it claims.

GJP members met with the administration and Treasurer’s office about Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) for the first time in August 2003. The campaign had three goals:
1) provide a list of all BC investments to the entire BC community
2) create a committee of students, faculty, and Jesuits to research any questionable issues in the endowment and offer suggestions to the Treasurer’s Office on how to invest in a way that wouldn’t, for instance, aid in polluting the environment, building WMDs, or exploiting workers in developing countries
3) vote on all of BC’s proxy resolutions (proxies are like referendums that shareholders can vote on during a company’s annual meeting. Many proxy resolutions have to do with social and environmental concerns, like asking companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions)

In August 2004, the university CFO Peter McKenzie summarily rejected a student proposal on creating an SRI advisory committee and releasing BC’s endowment information to the BC community.

In spring 2005, a group of GJP students continued with a publicity campaign to draw attention to BC’s lack of transparency. After a series of meetings, the administration once again refused to disclose where the endowment is invested. They still claimed that BC follows its SRI policy through choosing reputable investment managers, yet during that same meeting Executive Vice President Pat Keating casually remarked that “BC probably invests in every single major company”…implying that our money supports many businesses that do not in fact reflect our ethical, social, and moral principles.

In the wake of Harvard University’s student-led divestment of five companies doing business with the government of Sudan, and therefore aiding in the genocide in Dafur, GJP members inquired if BC invests in the same five companies. The Treasurer’s Office stated that none of BC’s university managed accounts invest in the five companies and conveniently forgot to mention that university managed accounts represent only a fraction of BC’s endowment.

It’s been a three-year struggle to find where our money is invested, and we’re not planning to give up the fight to democratize the investment practices of our University and ensure that our investments cause no social harm.

this website is anti-copyright, except for the bc observer. go pretend to be actual reporters and get your own information.


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	socially responsible investing history Your tuition goes towards Boston College’s endowment of over $1.4 billion, but none of us know where this money is invested. Nuclear Weapons? Tobacco? Land mines? Companies supporting the genocidal government of Sudan? Who knows? The BC administration refuses to tell students and alumni where their money is invested. Although the university’s investment policy demands its investments follow “the ethical, social, and moral principles inherent in [BC’s] traditions,” we have no idea what sort of companies and businesses our money supports. The evidence seems to show that our university’s investment policy is actually a far cry from the ethics and social responsibility it claims. GJP members met with the administration and Treasurer’s office about Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) for the first time in August 2003. The campaign had three goals: 1) provide a list of all BC investments to the entire BC community 2) create a committee of students, faculty, and Jesuits to research any questionable issues in the endowment and offer suggestions to the Treasurer’s Office on how to invest in a way that wouldn’t, for instance, aid in polluting the environment, building WMDs, or exploiting workers in developing countries 3) vote on all of BC’s proxy resolutions (proxies are like referendums that shareholders can vote on during a company’s annual meeting. Many proxy resolutions have to do with social and environmental concerns, like asking companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions) In August 2004, the university CFO Peter McKenzie summarily rejected a student proposal on creating an SRI advisory committee and releasing BC’s endowment information to the BC community. In spring 2005, a group of GJP students continued with a publicity campaign to draw attention to BC’s lack of transparency. After a series of meetings, the administration once again refused to disclose where the endowment is invested. They still claimed that BC follows its SRI policy through choosing reputable investment managers, yet during that same meeting Executive Vice President Pat Keating casually remarked that “BC probably invests in every single major company”…implying that our money supports many businesses that do not in fact reflect our ethical, social, and moral principles. In the wake of Harvard University’s student-led divestment of five companies doing business with the government of Sudan, and therefore aiding in the genocide in Dafur, GJP members inquired if BC invests in the same five companies. The Treasurer’s Office stated that none of BC’s university managed accounts invest in the five companies and conveniently forgot to mention that university managed accounts represent only a fraction of BC’s endowment. It’s been a three-year struggle to find where our money is invested, and we’re not planning to give up the fight to democratize the investment practices of our University and ensure that our investments cause no social harm. this website is anti-copyright, except for the bc observer. go pretend to be actual reporters and get your own information.